BMW employee left engine running and went for a walk in Central Park. An NYPD bomb squad team had to break into the vehicle to search it

A BMW employee left the engine running on a camouflaged X3 prototype near Central Park in Manhattan on Sunday causing a bomb scare that closed off the surrounding streets for 90 minutes.

A passerby noticed the vehicle parked in front of the American Museum of Natural History, found it to be suspicious, and notified the police. A bomb squad was called in and the rear window was smashed as police searched the vehicle for explosives.

The incident turned out to be a false alarm. BMW employee Martin Birkmann, who was testing the vehicle, had left the engine running while he went for a walk in Central Park. New York police ticketed him for idling.

Turns out not everyone is a car fan who can recognized BMW's usual camouflage wrapping on a prototype.